Tag: Berlin

Posted on

Konzerthaus Organ

In the Espresso Concert series we have had the chance to listen to young talented musicians. On 2026-1-7 Julian Emanuel Becker charmed the audience with 5+1 pieces in the “Großer Saal“ on the Jehmlich Organ (4 manuals, 74 registers, 5811 pipes). The program ranged from Bruhns, Bach, Mendelssohn Bartholdy to 2 pieces by Jehan Alain, which made for an interesting surprise. Mastering this huge Konzerthaus organ with impressive skills at just 20 years of age caught the attention of the Berlin audience including the tourists on visits. The enthusiasm of Julian Emanuel Becker for his instrument and the brief introductions he gave himself to each piece created a unique learning as well as musical experience for the entire audience irrespective of age and prior expertise. The „Espresso addicts“ of the Konzerthaus even took the chance to chat with the young organist to learn more about the marvelous instrument and the next steps in his promising career. The studies in Paris at the Conservatoire have been important steps in the careers of formidable pianists and composers for more than 200 years. Becker will surely return to Berlin to give concerts again. Try to catch a seat, if you can. (Image: Julian Emanuel Becker 2026-1-7 at the Konzerthaus Jehmlich Organ)

Posted on

Rotational energy

We all know rotational energy from our bicycles. lighting used to come from a small rotational energy source attached to a wheel (dynamo light) which produced sufficient electricity to lighten a front and back light. The use of rotational energy, however, is much older than the application on the bicycles, which have been largely replaced by batteries and LED-lights. The first so-called Post-mills stem from Normandy as well as the Rhine riversides around 1200. It took about 800 years to make a splendid comeback as energy source in the age of the „All electric society“ of the 21st century in the making. The „Deutsche Museum of Technology“ in Berlin has great examples of such rotational energy sources on display in the museum‘s park. You can walk a path through the past and future of rotational energy sources.

Posted on

Utopian Mobility

From time to time we have to reconsider our investments in mobility infrastructure. What seemed to make sense in the 50s,60s or 70s often makes no sense 60 years later. Highways, which separate city districts like walls belong to rather utopian visions about City life and mobility, progress and living conditions. These utopian individualized mobility solutions don’t seem to serve us as well as we believed, or were made to believe, more than half a century ago. Empty highways midday at the turn of 2025/26 tell their own story about liabilities from the past and outdated ideas of technical and social progress. Sharing solutions have become very popular and the younger generations adopt already different mobility patterns than older generations. Each generation adheres to its own more or less utopian mobility model, adjustments are likely to be made accordingly. 

Posted on

Documentation Inclusiveness

If we don’t measure it, it will not improve. Many public institutions and private organizations make great efforts to improve inclusiveness in day to day operations, but many barriers are still all around us. Both need monitoring in form of data bases and visual documentation. In a Berlin museum inclusiveness appears to be the most natural thing, nothing to worry about or to call out “wokeism”. Just small improvements in basics and everyone feels welcome.

Posted on

Projection Painting

Nature teaches us lots of tricks. Bionics are all around us in the 21st century, but the marvelous projection of a winter tree on a huge screen comes close to a naturalistic painting. The projection of the branches and leaves of a tree originates from the early sunset in December 2025 in Berlin. Nature teaches beauty and the techniques to imitate or reproduce the effects. Its up to us to keep our eyes, senses and minds open to enjoy the beauty in our surroundings. 

Posted on

Piano & Dance

Young talents sometimes offer innovative approaches. This was the case of Amiri Harewood in his performance of short piano pieces in the Espresso series at the Konzerthaus in Berlin. In an effort to take the Berlin audience on a lunchtime journey his program started with Schostakowitsch and Rachmaninow to move to less familiar repertoire from George Walker and Joshua Uzoigwe to “Valses Poéticos” from Granados. The live performance by Amiri Harewood in Berlin was at its best when he started to move head and shouldlers, breathe in tune and dance a bit while playing the piano. This rather unique feature of his performance is certainly different from a “stiff upper lip” or rigid posture we observe too often. This created an interesting “Kontrapunkt” for many in the audience who rather came for the espresso and to visit the building expecting some classic piano in the historic setting of the Konzerthaus Berlin. It took a while until people realized they were up to a unique piano experience. “Neuer Wein in alten Flaschen” = young, fresh music in old bottles or settings.

Posted on

Konzerthaus Espresso

Classical music in classicist architecture sounds like a perfect match. The audience is packed with people mostly 60+ years of age. One of the spectators happily admitted that without the espresso before the concert she would have a hard time to follow closely because after lunch at 2 p.m it is time for a rest rather than excitement.
The series of short concerts at lunchtime suits particular audiences. It is probably the only concert series where the queue in front of the toilet of men is equally long than the one for women. The short concert program allows for more experimental formats as well. Musicians who develop a solo program of shorter than standard concert hall duration can appear in high reputation locations and gain experience of performing in such prestigious settings.
With a “Zugabe” from the performer, but also in form of a small piece of chocolate for the audience at the exit, 21st century, classical Berlin knows how to charm its aging audience and population. Young performers learn that the mature audiences don’t bite any more. In case the sound and peaks become too modern they just adapt sound level of their hearing aids. It is perfect for all generations.

Posted on

EU Digital Sovereignty

If we try to search for digital solutions, we shall encounter a whole lot of American and Chinese products, but very few European companies that are able or willing to compete. Hardware mainly comes from China, software from the US, at least until AI was not working in the background. If we add Russian interference to destabilize our digital infrastructure to the scenario, we are not really fit for the challenges of the 21st century. The very definition of a country or political union is the affirmation and competence to assure its sovereignty, particularly in cases of territorial conflicts with neighboring countries. My health or mobility data are a rather private affair, however, our state governments in EU-Europe have done little to ensure our data integrity. Business is also at a loss, if they do not spend heavily on data security themselves, usually relying on external cooperation. 

The EU digital sovereignty summit took place in Berlin on the EUREF campus in 2025. It can only constitute a beginning for intensified cooperation in  this long overlooked policy area. It will be tough to catch up where production has been abandoned for decades.  

Posted on

Headless Saint Dionysius

Denis of Paris stands for the Saint Dionysius, who is reported to have walked after being decapitated as martyr for his christian beliefs by the Romans in the 3rd century, all the way from Paris to St Denis in the suburb of Paris. We do not only find such a statue at Notre Dame in Paris, but also a medieval version in the Bode museum in Berlin. The cathedral of St Denis in Paris became subsequently the place for the coronation and burial of many French kings. The last king who lost his head through the guillotines was Louis XVI. It took almost another 200 years to abolish capital punishment altogether in France. Robert Badinter devoted his career to fight for this appeacement within the nation. (Image: Statue St Denis in Bode museum Berlin).  

Posted on

Freedom of art

Some depictions or statues of the 16th century quite expressive and average expressions of their time. An angel who is playing the lute in a rather extroverted way is amongst the remarkable artifacts we can discover in the Berlin Bode Museum. The Angel playing the lute is an oeuvre by Hans Brüggemann from 1520 in Husum. The angel certainly performed holy music with interesting postures, which resemble more rock stars of the 20th century or youth performing an act of “air guitar”. Artists always tested the limits of the freedom of art and expression. (Image from Brüggemann Angel playing the lute, Bode museum Berlin, 1520) 

Posted on

Surrealism Networks

The research project on the networks of artists in the group of surrealism ranges from the male proponents Breton, Ernst, Magritte, Miró to female painters like Lenora Carrington and Dorothea Tanning. The collection of Ulla und Heiner Pietzsch, donated to the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, excels not only in the depth and breadth of the collection of surrealism, but also in the way it contributes to our understanding of artistic movements and network dynamics. For those familiar with the theoretical and literary underpinnings of surrealism by André Breton, the collection allows to follow the traces of ideas into artworks. Interdependent inspiration in multiple ways becomes visible in this exceptional exhibition. The special concern and concept to honor provenance of the artworks makes the trajectories of each artwork explicit. Thereby, the geographic dimension, importance of collectors, galleries and personal relationships to gallerists become tangible. Additionally, the seizure of the 2WW heightened the need to have contacts to survive Nazi-terror. You find it all condensed into just one room at the Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin thanks also go to the Zentralarchiv to facilitate and participate in the research and documentation. (Image: Miró Collage, Berlin Neue Nationalgalerie 2025)

Posted on

Gentileschi Gentileschi

There are 2 Gentileschis that entered the history of art. Orazio the father and his daughter Artemisia. Orazio painted many scenarios based on the bible. The incestuous relationship between Lot and his daughters is difficult one to portray and to do justice to the moral concerns involved. Artemisia, similarly, did not shun away from difficult stories of the bible and added a personal twist to these stories in putting her face into the biblical depiction. The cruelty of the stories become more explicit this way and maybe also her deviant position to the biblical narrative. (Image: Orazio Gentileschi‘ (1622/23) „Lot with his daughters“ Gemäldegalerie Berlin)

Posted on

Claudel & Hoetger

It is well known that artists joined other artists and groups to get inspired. The entangled relationship between Camille Claudel and Auguste Rodin has become a special example of the tricky relationship between learning and co-creation or inspiration. The role of galerists in building a reputation for artists is less well understood. The “Alte Nationalgalerie“ in Berlin opens up this black box a bit through juxtaposition of Camille Claudel, Bernhard Hoetger as disciples of Auguste Rodin. The influences are rather obvious, yet each disciple developed her/his unique style. The emancipation was not without frictions. The galerist Eugène Blot organized a joint exposition of both disciples in 1905 in Paris, which is partly reproduced in Berlin 2025. Great work by the curators of the exhibition Yvette Deseyve and Sintje Guericke who managed to bring together unique sculptures from 3+ museums and a great explanation of the links between the artists as well as the proximity of ateliers. (Image: view of showroom in Alte Nationalgalerie Berlin, Claudel & Hoetger 2025)

Posted on

Odessa Berlin Odessa

With a sense of partnership, it is possible to travel between Odessa and Berlin in the “Gemäldegalerie” in Berlin 2025. Due to the war of Putin in Ukraine the “Museum of Western and Eastern Art” in Odessa had to relocate its treasures to safe places. The Gemäldegalerie offers a chance to view the splendid collection nevertheless. The curators’ team in a spirit of “art intelligence” propose, in a splendid way, most oeuvres from Odessa next to an example by the same painter from the Berlin collection. The visitor leaves the exhibition enriched by an experience of “jumelage” (engl. sister cities) of partnerships between museums, cities and their people.
In fact, we have shared the same imagery or visual heritage in Europe for centuries . The collections of paintings ranges from the 16th -19th century art  or from Frans Hals to impressionist influences.
We shall cherish the return of the collection to Ukrainian Odessa as soon as possible. The image below shows the places of origin (yellow dots) of the art works of the Odessa collection across centuries (map from the exhibition).

Posted on

Dépaysé in gallery

The installation ar the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin entitled „Fog Sculpture“ takes us from the sculpture garden of the Gallery into a tropical forest atmosphere. Just changing the humidity and visibility through the artificial production of fog transforms the perception of the artworks. A kind of Asian flair surrounds the western sculptures in the garden. The fog installs also a mystification whoch we know in art from the romantic painters like Caspar David Friedrich for example. All long-term followers shall appreciate the new perception of the artworks thanks to Fujiko Nakayo. It’s definitely more than old wine in new bottles. The artwork brings a more global twist to the preexisting sculptures and reminds us in Berlin even of the wrapping and unwrapping of the  Reichstag building by Jeanne-Claude Christo. We see the sculptures or architecture differently after they disappeared temporarily and reappear again.

Posted on

Berlin building

Yes, 35 years after re-unification Berlin is still building at lots of places. The boom years of building hotels for tourists, offices for ministries, which were moving from Bonn to Berlin, is now followed by a „surprising“ need to have sufficient vacancies in private housing. Berlin is still growing in terms of population and, of course, this creates additional upward pressure on the housing market with particularly high increases on the rental market. In order to achieve a narrowing of the gap between demand and supply, Berlin is building higher as well as digging deeper into its sandy ground. In such huge open spaces near Südkreuz it is then feasible to explore and later exploit geothermal energy for years to come. Maybe it is not a surprise that apparently a Texas (USA) based investor has bought the ground and builds in Berlin. Drilling in Berlin for energy from underneath is a worthwhile business. Hence, drill baby drill has a new Berlin meaning to it. 

Posted on

Dream together

„Dream together“ is the title of the exhibition of Yoko Ono at the „Neue Nationalgalerie“ in Berlin 2025. The title is an invitation or even an incitement to dream jointly with others. We need to dream of peace on all sides or parties in a war. Start with the dream and then move on to working together on it. The participatory art projects of Yoko Ono are a recurring event in Berlin and at the Neue Nationalgalerie (Cut piece). The installation „Wish Tree for Berlin“ in front of the gallery is popular with visitors who leave hundreds of written wishes to the windy spring days. Origami folding, stone assembling or a simultaneous chessboard playing with all white pieces and fields encourage to imagine a world differently, beyond the treaded belligerent paths. For more inspiration and imagination just continue to the Martin Gropiusbau for more artworks from Ono or just watch the clouds pass by changing the lighting of the olive tree carrying lots of wishes.

Posted on

Lviv Ukraine

Small galleries can make a real difference. In Berlin the gallery “streulicht” has a selection of photos in an exhibition that portraits artist from Lviv in Ukraine. Hans Hugo Hoffmann manages in his photographs to depict the extraordinary resilience of Ukrainian creative persons who live through a protracted war of their country against the Russian aggressor. The persons embody the strength of resisting through their art work despite the wounds inflicted on their families or the people of Lviv and the whole of Ukraine due to the war. The persons portrayed try to continue their normal day to day work, knowing that nothing is normal anymore in Ukraine. “Bizarre Normality” characterizes our perspective on these artists, who are thrown into a world of events that we no longer thought might be possible in Europe. Bucha and other crimes by Russian soldiers in this Russian aggression leave traces in the faces of Ukrainian people and even beyond. We all wish that the people of Ukraine can return to “normality” as soon as possible, although we know that nothing will be normal as it was before the Russian invasion.

Posted on

Local history

In Berlin and many other big cities in Germany like Munich and Hamburg there are local history projects which tell the stories of specific places or a house linked to liberation day or deportation or courageous acts during the Nazi  grip on Germany and terror across Europe. The initiative « Denkmal am Ort » has become a kind of citizen science project which brings people together to raise awareness again for the cruelties committed under the dictatorship of Hitler and the fascist political movements. Remembrance is not a passive form it can take many active forms as well by simply trying to find an answer to the question what happened during the 30s, 40 and 1950s in the house you are currently living in? Access to archives of cities and small towns can tell very surprising stories about local history. It is a great inter generational experience as well and sometimes the unspoken history turns into a great conversation about history and responsibilities. History is everywhere you just need to keep your eyes and mind open.

Posted on

Constitutional Responsibility

The memory of horrors caused by Nazi-led Germany before and during the 2nd World War is our constitutional obligation in the Federal Republic of Germany since its beginnings in 1948. 80 years after the unconditional surrender this has become a state responsibility. Since the shift of tone introduced by Richard von Weizäcker on 8th of May 1985 framing the end of the 2nd WW as liberation day in Europe and Germany. On the same day, 40 years later, the top 5 political instances of democracy in Germany, president, chancellor, presidents of the parliament (1st chanber), the council of the regions (2nd chamber) as well as the constitutional court. The constitutional and moral responsibility of the crimes is not reserved to a presidential address, but all pilars of democracy in Germany committed to the narrative of a liberation of Germans and Europeans at the end of the 2WW. It is a truly European topic to celebrate the end of war jointly in all countries. This is even more the case as the memories of the last survivors of the Shoa in Europe is less transmitted by the rare survivors until today due to very old age. The impressive unity of the top constitutional powers sets a the path for a far reaching renewal of the acknowledgement of a specific constitutional responsibility to counter extremist tendencies. The speeches by Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Julia Klöckner in the Bundestag (Link in German) were remarkable in explaining in plain language, why we are happy about this liberation also in Germany. The emphasis of the end of pervasive and endless oppression and suffering caused by the Nazi-regime are an essential part of this feeling of liberation. With this commemoration Germany today has become even more a European nation which takes its historical responsibility seriously.

Posted on

Liberation Day

In Germany the celebration of the liberation day 2025-5-8 change years of mixed feelings about what happened during the 2nd world war. In Berlin this day is a bank holiday now and more and more people subscribe to the view that the liberation from Nazi-terror was a blessing for German people. The “Neue Wache” is the room of silence in honor of all victims. We shall always remember. Fighting the early tendencies remains the most effective strategy to avoid extremism of fascist groups. It is the task of Germans born also long after the war to keep the memory of the atrocities alive and to care about prevention of new ones.

Posted on

Ugly duckling revival

Ever since Hans Christian Andersen created the fairy tale of the “ugly duckling” (1843) the story has been adapted to all forms of theatre. The adaptation of the fairy tale to the stage in 2019 and the revival in 2023 at the “Deutsches Theater” in Berlin keeps inspiring people to surpass their restrictions or inhibitions, whatever they may be. This early 19th century fairy tale is a fine piece of the search of identity of a person. As it deals with the difficulty of individuals to find their own identity, the fairy tale deals already with the fitting of an individual into society. Society exercises pressure on individuals to conform to written and unwritten rules, which tend to hold up rules like “one size fits all”. Differentiation and allowing individuals to be different from an established norm becomes a central theme of modernity and even more so in the post-modern world. It is the essence of democratic societies to practice a tolerance of persons being or just wanting to be different. The performance at the “Deutsches Theater” might be a test of your level of tolerance or acceptance of diversity for some, but at the time of rising intolerance in and beyond the U.S. under Trump, such performances are dearly needed to celebrate the rich cultural heritage and achievements of far reaching tolerance. It becomes more evident what we are about to loose (again), if such performances would no longer be possible in a controlled or financially overly restricted world of theatre.

Posted on

Persistent beauty

The fashion industry is known for its fast turnover of beautiful designs from season to season. Some designs and often just single pieces survive the fast turnaround of the fashion industry. In many cities we find shops that sell so-called vintage cloths and objects. For men and women it is feasible to rediscover pieces of longer lasting beauty or even persistent beauty. The persistence of an image of beauty may follow the classics of designers and specific brands, but it may also have a very personal touch referring more to a person’s own life course (when we were young) or associated with freeing yourself from your family or societal context. The 60s and  70s were such time periods with radically changing images and ideas about beauty. Since then more individualised clothing seems to take hold, although there is an equally strong tendency of social or age groups to identify themselves through specific clothing, showing that you belong to the “in-group”.

Posted on

Archi Octagon

The architecture we see around us has lots of interesting mathematical features. Some are the basis for more complicated calculations. The octagon shape is not that common, but with some formulas the calculations become easier and construction in the real world is more feasible. Well worth to dig a bit deeper into this shape. The geometry of angles and circumference follows rules that have been laid out a long time ago. The webpages explaining this are manifold and it is a project of its own kind to compare them and recommend the best ones. My current favorite is: mathmonks. A reasonable choice is in most cases also wikipedia, the long running amazing knowledge project also for the octagon.

Image: Berlin Europa Center 2025.

Posted on

Kids Gaming

The pressure on children and their parents is high to succumb to the temptation of digital and online gaming. Albeit there are many funny and learning alternatives for them if they are accompanied by an instructor to build or invent their own game. With some adaptations it is possible to assemble for example a coordination game for children which directs a small ball through a labyrinth. Add speed and tricky holes to the “parcour” and the race is on. It is little bit like hands-on physics as the speed and acceleration patterns across the parcour varies a lot. Planning, building and playing are an ensemble in this simple game. Probably also more fun than the x-th repetition of a digital game.

(Inspiration from: Berliner Kultur gestalten, workshops for children).

 

Posted on

Owners Dispute

Renovations of housing with distributed ownerships can be a challenging experience. In Berlin you can find a few places with visible long-term disagreement about what kind of modernization should be done. More luxurious additions like balconies or triple window isolation and so on are sometimes hotly debated and contested in courts. For most buildings you cannot spot disagreements on the outside, but some constitute exceptions to this rule. One size does not fit all preferences. In a metropolitan city there is a place and a space for all such exceptions to the rule and most people after years do no longer think about such kind of diversity in preferences or budgets available for modernization. Cities put our level of tolerance to a continuous test. You probably learn to love this or eventually you leave the inner city. There are subtle differences in urban versus rural lifestyles. In the social sciences we continue to try to understand the attraction of cities as on a global scale millions of people flock to cities.

Posted on

Bricks and algorithms

Construction as an economic sector has suffered for decades from skill shortages. The PWC study on skill needs in construction and management of digitalization in this sector shows various deficiencies. Labor demand in excess of own training efforts in the related professions is further increasing in coming years. Migrants from across the world have come to Europe to fill the skill shortages and willingness to work in the sector. Population aging increases demand for adaptions of housing and tertiarization of the economy asked for new office space and adaptation of existing ones. 

The skills involved in construction have also evolved. Digitalization and understanding of new technology needs of modern housing increased the level of cognitive skills in the sector enormously. “just let the liquid concrete flow” will no longer suffice. Environmental obligations, renewable energy and design issues had an impact on the sector. 

Many enterprises in this sector have trailed other sectors to adopt strategies like digital pairs of a building or connected manufacturing of facilities with data sharing and compatible software. All this led to the fact that younger employees or university graduates (m/f/d) have preferred other sectors. IT development and applications are interesting and challenging in this sector as well. Logistic arrangements a formidable task as well. 

The claim of too much bureaucracy is just an excuse for lacking digitalization of the sector. Years ago we stated that every task you carry out more than once can be automized. With AI in construction digitalization starts with each singular case as a learning occasion for humans and algorithms supporting us.

Posted on

Aufklärung Enlightenment

The period of the enlightenment is a historically defined time period of the late 17th and the whole 18th century. Although often associated only with Europe as its origin, the American contributions and influences have been far-reaching as well, just thinking of the “Declaration of Independence“. This historical period is, however, most interesting through the unrivalled contribution and pivotal point to the history of ideas. The exhibition and catalogue on the “Aufklärung – Enlightenment” by the German Historical Museum in Berlin exposes many of the historical editions of books that “made the enlightenment”. Philosophical writings and readings (Immanuel Kant: Kritik der …) of the period (especially in German) are tough even for native speakers of German, unlike reading of French (e.g. Jean-Jacques Rousseau) or English (e.g. John Locke) contributions to the enlightenment. Maybe this is already one of the reasons why in France the revolutionary ideas were put into practice through population-wide political movements.
The historical period of the enlightenment came to a close in the early 19th century (1806 another pivotal year). The English or French terms of enlightenment or lumière maybe be interpreted in a way that other historical periods like the medieval ages were periods of darkness, even later periods again did not live up to the idealist prerogatives of the evolution of humanity. The German term “Aufkärung” has its etymological roots more in the action associated with “to enlighten”. This hints at the continuing process of the ideas of the enlightenment in modern terms the process of individualisation, tolerance and autonomy.
There many valuable short interviews shown in the exhibition and Jürgen Habermas contributed a short closing statement to the catalogue of the exhibition on the unfinished project of the “Aufklärung” inviting us to continue also with the “Kritik der Aufklärung”. After all the enlightenment did not save us from repeated events like “Apokalyses“.
(Image: Émilie du Châtelet, below book on Newton Physics in DHM Enlightenment exhibition 2025).

Posted on

Hands-on AI

The use of AI in translation and to streamline texts and preparation of communication has become a common experience. The applications in medical fields are less well known. Scans and checking of skin cancer could be a game changer for many who live far away from the next medical doctor. AI assisted brain surgery is another issue, but a very specialized application. The interface of AI and robotics might be another game changer as such applications where you train the robot with for example weight lifting and transportation charges can contribute to alleviate human skeletons. Handheld devices can guide the robot and data from sensors will complement the learning of the tasks through assistance from AI. Applications are manifold and we have not even seen the most promising ones. The application potential in warfare are particularly troublesome as humans do not necessarily enter into the concern of AI-assisted weaponry. In the social sphere trust is a crucial behavioral and ethical concern. These issues AI can only learn from us. Any attempts to do without human input and control is doomed to fail. We are not indispensable yet, we are simply turning more and more into responsible, supervisory roles. 

(Image: Acatech exhibition with hands-on AI applications, Berlin in collaboration with IQZ and DTM, German museum of technology.)

Posted on

Berlin Mind

For a long time now, I have been asking myself the question: What is like to be in a „Berlin state of mind“. The exhibition of the 2 photographers of the Berlin Landesarchiv as part of the Berlin activities of the EMOP contributed to understanding and more precise description of the „Berlin state of mind“. As we shall celebrate in 2025 the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Europe, Germany and Berlin from Nazi rule and terror, we have seen endless reconstruction and reshaping of the city. The ever growing need for housing and space-grabbing office buildings bring about a permanent feeling of change, of becoming, of under construction. The years of the separated city as well as the building and taking down of the Berlin wall created many new opportunities for developers of the city and its structure of quarters, arrondisements or „Bezirke“ and „Kieze“ within the districts. 

Due to the continuous urban renewal also of basic infrastructure Berliners have the impression that there is construction work all around us all the time. With the abundant construction works come the construction fences. They too have changed. Some fences show digital prints of virtual worlds of the Berlin living in some future time. However, the promises often mask the reality that fences will be replaced by concrete walls and inaccessible buildings for most people of the neighborhood as gated business space or city blocks grab the space to form and reform the metropolitan landscape. The construction fences themselves become the contested areas where different strata of society interact or intersect. The „Berlin state of mind“ is one of becoming. Longing to become something else, something aware of the overwhelming historical duties, but still rising from the ashes. The experience to see a wall come down between cold war enemies liberates a belief that we can overcome frontiers. However, this in-between state of mind has brought us multiple fences of all sorts. Construction fences are only the most visible ones that surround the many spaces under construction. In the imagery of Berliners and visitors beyond the wall, fences are continuously on our minds in the „Berlin state of mind“.